/*
 * Copyright (c) 2012-2013 Open Source Community - <http://www.peerfact.org>
 * Copyright (c) 2011-2012 University of Paderborn - UPB
 * Copyright (c) 2005-2011 KOM - Multimedia Communications Lab
 *
 * This file is part of PeerfactSim.KOM.
 * 
 * PeerfactSim.KOM is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 * any later version.
 * 
 * PeerfactSim.KOM is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 * 
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with PeerfactSim.KOM.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 *
 */

package org.peerfact.api.overlay;

import java.util.Collection;


/**
 * 
 * @author <info@peerfact.org>
 * @version 05/06/2011
 * 
 */
public interface NeighborDeterminator<S extends OverlayContact<?>> {

	/**
	 * Determines the neighbors from an overlay instance in a node. If the
	 * overlay supports a distance metric and it is possible to do it
	 * efficiently, the nodes are sorted by distance in ascending order.
	 * 
	 * @return the neighbors of a node
	 */
	public Collection<S> getNeighbors();

}
